I had explored the village several times to get a feel for it, but I still felt that I could get lost in a moment's notice. Still, I decided to take a break from exploring and settle somewhere for a bit.

After a minor, mental skirmish with myself, I finally decided to work on some of my jutsus.

Once at the training grounds, I picked out a place that was wide, but just a bit secluded at the same time. I needed space, but I didn't exactly want to be watched while training. Failure at executing a jutsu would be excruciatingly embarrassing. I bit my lip at the thought of that scenario. It would suck sooo badly if I were to be caught failing on the first day here at the village. I shook my head quickly, my hair whipping my face, as if to clear away the bad thoughts. Then, I scolded myself for thinking such childish things and bid myself to concentrate.

I decided to work on my Flow jutsu. I could only fly for about ten seconds, fifteen if I got lucky. It would be so cool if I could actually just fly as naturally as I breathed.

Using that goal as my focal point, I focused hard and tried my best not to close my eyes. Closing my eyes would probably help me focus better, but it wouldn't be good for me to be blind during a battle. I kept my eyes opened and imagined myself levitating a bit above the ground.

For a while, nothing happened, but I slowly started to rise from the ground.

I smiled briefly, but the smile disappeared as suddenly as it came. I frowned a little and carefully imagined myself actually moving through the air. I glided in mid-air a few inches or so, but I felt myself lose my focus and drop.

I landed lightly on my feet.

"Dang it!" I whispered fiercely to myself. I let out a huge breath of air in pure anger, and only then noticed that I was starting to become drenched in my own sweat.

Letting out a softer sigh, I unzipped the light-weight jacket and hung it on a nearby tree to dry. I decided to dry myself out, too, and sat down under the tree with my knees pulled up in a comfortable position and my back to the sturdy trunk. I leaned my head against it also, closed my eyes, and let the nice, cool breeze gently brush my anxieties away.

I blinked my eyes open and felt momentarily confused. I took in my surroundings, the wide, and some-what secluded place that I had picked out for myself. My jacket hung above me on a branch, and I realized that I'd fallen asleep while I was taking a break.

Instead of getting up, though, I fell over on my side from the sitting position that I had slept in, and lied down comfortably. I was never good at waking up.

A bit of wind blew the jacket square on my face. Suppressing a groan, I got up and hung the jacket on the branch again. I stretched my arms towards the sky, went on my tippy-toes, and arched my back.

"Kyaa~" It felt so good to stretch.

'Okay,' I thought to myself. 'Let's work on Flow again.'

Refreshed from my little nap, I found it easier to focus, and I was floating in no time.

Last edited by Aki Tsukichou on Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:20 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Spelling and grammatical errors. (Oh, the horror!) D:)

Hearing someone's voice, I suddenly lost focus and started to drop. I barely managed to land properly on my feet.

I wasn't exactly sure who the voice belonged to... or where it came from. Alert, I looked around with a hand to my baton on my back. Surely, no one would attack me out of nowhere in the training grounds...?

I laughed nervously and tugged at a lock of my hair. "You're too nice, Yori." I was grateful for the compliment, however. It really did make me feel good to know that I had support. "Thanks," I added, smiling.

"So... what are you doing here, anyway?" I quickly amended myself. "I mean, not to be rude, of course, but I didn't think anyone would really find me here." I let out another little laugh.

"Well, I was coming here to train with one of my newest jutsu, but I couldn't help but notice you training by yourself. Did you want any help with your training, it'll be good for the both of us because we can both get some in? Kill two birds with one stone..." she proposed with a small nod of her head.

"But one thing you should always remember Aki..." she said before she disappeared in a shower of flower petals. "Never let your opponent see that your guard is down." she whispered, now standing behind her.

"Aki-chan, please don't hold back...it's important that you try your best, regardless if it's a real match or not." she reminded her, quickly blocking the blow with her arm and pushing her a few feet away.

It was like she read my mind. I gritted teeth and dug my toes into the ground to stop myself from going back any farther. Instantly I shot myself forward at her again.

New thoughts whirled in my head, fueled by the adrenaline that coursed through me.'She's right,' I thought. 'At this rate, I'll never get any better. And besides... she's a jounin, so she should be able to defend herself from my attacks anyway,' I thought reluctantly.

"Okay!" I said as I started to close the distance between us. "By the way... my friends prefer to call me "Aki-kun" instead of "Aki-chan". They say it suits me better. But it's your choice." With those words, I aimed another blow at her with my baton aimed at her stomach again. I prepared myself to give her a left uppercut to her chin right after.

When the baton finally collided with her stomach, a small 'poof' was heard and her body suddenly changed into a log before falling to the ground with a soft thud. "Not bad Aki-kun...but it'll take a lot more than just a simple baton to land a hit against a genjutsu user." her voice echoed through the forest, but she was nowhere to be found.

I pulled a grim expression. Genjutsu. It always seemed to me that genjutsu was like a legal cheat, because it just seemed almost impossible to get out of. I mentally noted to myself to work with genjutsu some other time.

I stood my ground, baton at the ready, and scanned the area quickly. I couldn't spot Yori anywhere.

"Aqua Sanctuary," I said, calmly. A dome of water enveloped me completely, allowing absolutely nothing in or out. I decided to see what Yori would do next.

'Well that's interesting...' she noted to herself with a small nod, appearing before Aki's water dome, standing a safe distance away to examine this jutsu of hers. "So your chakra is mostly water element then..." she pondered out loud, pulling out a few senbon before tossing them towards the water dome to see what would happen.

I watched her senbons slide harmlessly down the side of my protective bubble.

While she was distracted, I started my Aerial Waves, which repeatedly started buffeting her without fail. I knew it didn't do too much when it came to inflicting damage, but because it was invisible and hard to track, I hoped that it would confuse her and provide distractions for opportunities to strike.

"What's next, Yori?" I asked her, looking completely normal as if I weren't doing anything else besides standing there and looking at her quizzically.

Last edited by Aki Tsukichou on Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:16 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Got rid of unnecessary words.)

She quickly turned her head when she felt a sudden change in the air, they might have been invisible, but she could feel them coming towards her fast. Thinking quick on her feet, she quickly formed a handsign, disappearing in a flurry of cherry blossom petals before they slowly began to circle around Aki's water dome, quickly picking up speed as the petals continued to flow around her, closing the space around them.

I frowned, wondering where she disappeared off to. Eying the petals suspiciously, I readied myself for whatever was to come, and placed a firmer grip on my shield. I couldn't see Yori, so I used my Aerial Waves to blow the petals away instead.

Somehow, the flower petals seemed to go right through the aerial waves and touching up against the water shield until they started surrounding her body. The petals went down to her feet, slowly dissolving her body.